Alternate Meetings
by Christy - Flare
Summary: A very surprised Whovian finds the TARDIS materializing right in front of her eyes. One-shot.


A/N: Basically just an idea of what the Doctor would do in this universe and how he would react to being in a TV show. It's the tenth one, 'cause I'm sticking my alternate in here, and if I wouldn't trust the eleventh, neither will my alternate. Read, don't read, I don't particularly care this time; I just want to write something down and see where it goes.

BTW, LovelyAmberLight, the author of the wonderful fic "Reality", has given me permission to use a certain idea of theirs in this story and the next one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. If I had, Journey's End would not have ended like it had.

* * *

After a long, _long _marathon of Tenth Doctor episodes and rewatching Day of the Doctor for the zillionth time (okay, third), I found out that I had run out of decent food. I was too tired to cook, so I decided to go out for pizza.

It was on the way back when it happened.

The very familiar wheezing, grinding sound of a materializing TARDIS got me looking around for it's source. A flickering at the corner of my eye got me looking there, and I almost fainted.

Right in front of my own two eyes, that familiar wooden blue police box was fading in and out of existence about fifteen feet away from me.

I couldn't believe it.

I pinched myself.

Ow.

Okay, not dreaming. What the heck-?

My thoughts were cut off by the doors opening, white smoke billowing out, and a coughing Tenth Doctor stumbling out, waving his hand around to dissipate it.

My jaw dropped.

A million explanations of what could be happening flew through my head, as well as a million explanations as to why none of them could work.

Other than the idea that this could be real. Somehow.

I was just forming a few theories about how, when the Doctor noticed me gaping at him and froze, looking at me worriedly.

"Uh..." he said, before pointing back at his box with his thumb. "Did you..."

I nodded, eyes wide and mouth still open.

He looked quickly back and forth between me and the TARDIS for a bit before giving me the "Oncoming Storm" look.

I instinctively took a step back, snapped my mouth shut, and gulped.

"How can you see my ship? Did you bring me here?" he growled.

I gave a couple of squeaks before managing to spit out, "Perception filter. Corner of my eye. Looked. Saw it. No," and then gulped again.

He glared at me for a few seconds before finally seeming to accept my statements as true and relaxing a bit.

As soon as he looked away, I breathed out a sigh of relief before panting a bit to catch my breath.

"Dang," I muttered, as soon as I could breathe again. "It's a wonder more aliens don't run at the sight of that look."

The Time Lord clearly heard me though (dang his good hearing) and whipped his head around to glare at me again.

"What do you know about me?" he asked dangerously.

"Uh..." I stammered. "Before I answer that, you should know that you're not in your home universe."

"And why would you say that?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

"Um, well... Because pretty much your entire life, past and a bit of your future, is either on TV, in books, on the radio, or in comics in this universe. You're not supposed to be real."

"And you expect me to believe that?" he snapped.

"No really!" I semi-squeaked, pulling my I-pad out of my bag and flipping it open. "If you can get me an Internet connection, I can prove it, about your past anyways. Wouldn't want to see your future, huh?"

He gave me a suspicious look before snatching my I-pad from my hands, sonicking it, and handing it back.

I opened up Netflix and pulled up "The Empty Child," figuring I couldn't go wrong with a past self.

I set it to play and handed it to the Doctor.

The Doctor's face was priceless.

His eyes just got wider and wider for the first bit, then confused looking at the theme music, then finally narrowing a bit at the next few minutes.

At that point, he figured out how to fast forward the episode and proceeded to watch some random scenes, including the "Everybody lives!" bit, which I smiled at.

After he finished, he just looked up at me completely bewildered. Then looked down again and proceeded to poke at the screen some more.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Episode summaries," he mumbled absently.

"Season 1 only, please."

"Mhm."

After a few seconds, he looked up again and dazedly handed me back my Ipad.

"This... this is impossible!" he stammered.

"You do seem to say that a lot."

"Eh?"

"Oops. Possible spoilers. Okay, I gotta know where you are in your timeline. Who was your last companion?"

The Doctor's jaw worked a bit before he gave me a sharp glare and said darkly, "Are you trying to trick me? 'Cause if you are, I'll find out eventually, and that's not good for you, especially if you've been spying on me."

I rolled my eyes slightly and sighed. "I'll let you read my mind if you want, but I still don't want you to actually know your future, so..."

"How do I know you don't have a trap in that head of yours?" he interrupted.

I raised an eyebrow. "Have you met Madame de Pompadour yet?"

He hesitated before nodding.

"Then just shield your thoughts from me and tread carefully if you must. And I'd rather not have my mind burn out trying to hold yours, thank you very much."

The Doctor gave me a suspicious look before conceding.

"Donna."

"Hm?"

"My last companion. It was Donna."

I cringed.

"Dang. Pretty much everybody hates what you did to her. Probably more than half the fans wanted to wring your neck through the screen..."

"She would have died."

"She DID die!" I snapped, then growled out, "You condemned her to a life of eternal sadness and feelings of worthlessness! She also said **_NO!_**"

I let that implication sink in before saying, "Was there any particular reason that the Chameleon Arch wouldn't have worked?"

The Doctor's eyes widened, and he promptly facepalmed.

"Gah! I'm an idiot!" he screamed.

"Yes you are," I agreed.

"But wait..." he said, running his hand through his hair and pacing back and forth. "Nonononono. It wouldn't work. Not without knowing more about the metacrisis. It could have worse results otherwise... Gah! If only I would have known about this _earlier_!"

I hesitated before finally asking, "Doctor, would Gallifrey be able to help, with information at least?"

"Yeah, but it's gone," he muttered.

"Uh... weeelll... maybe not..." I quietly said.

The Time Lord's head whipped around lightning fast.

"WHAT?!" he yelled.

"Um..." I squeaked. "There may be a large-ish time loop involved involving you and your next incarnation and another one, and you should probably decide if you want details or not 'cause the loop has to happen anyways, and as long as everyone acts right, it should still work, and I really hope I didn't say too much, but you're always so depressed over it and other things, and you might still have to wait awhile to fix anything, but you have to at least fix Donna or time-lock her after you regenerate until you can fix her, 'cause otherwise it's just depressing having her go around being a completely close-minded idiot all the time, and the longer she stays stupid, the harder she'll slap you after getting fixed, and you REALLY want to wait until after you regenerate, 'cause it's gonna be kinda destructive, and maybe that's not a good idea, 'cause the TARDIS has it's unsafe moments, and maybe you can put her in a deep pit somewhere in UNIT, and I'm sorry, I'll shut up now."

It took about a minute of gaping and concentrating and pacing and the like for the Doctor to process all of this.

Finally, he spoke.

"All right. All right. If this really is a different universe, the information you gave me shouldn't affect my actual timeline, except maybe the time loop you mentioned. Which means I should probably know as much about it as possible. Especially if it involves Gallifrey surviving. Will you still allow me to scan your mind?"

I nodded, but as he started forward towards me, I asked, "Will the TARDIS hold up long enough?" while pointing at said ship.

He turned to look at her and looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Oh, I just think she needs to cool off for a bit before I can even start on repairs. What's your name, by the way?"

"Asks the man who's about to get inside my head," I smirked. "Amber Williams."

He smiled. "Well then, Amber Williams," he said in that trademark way of his. "Let's get inside your head!"

This is gonna be so cool! I've always wondered what telepathy in general would feel like, and my first experience is gonna be with the Doctor of all people!

I grinned excitedly, which got me a slightly suspicious look from said alien before he decided to advance on me.

I shifted my legs a bit before standing still and closing me eyes, already in the process of closing doors in my mind to all post-Journey's End episodes except Day of the Doctor, just in case.

Then, I felt cool fingers press against my temples and a chillingly powerful energy sweep into my mind.

Wow.

I shuddered a bit.

_'Hmm...' _I heard the Doctor saying in my head. _'You already have doors made up.'_

_'Yeah,' _I replied. _'I figured you could choose if you want spoilers or not. Just knock or bust the door down if you're sure you want to see what's behind one. The one labelled Day of the Doctor should be open. That's the one with the time loop you wanted to know about.'_

I felt the mental equivalent of a nod before he hesitated and turned to rifle through some other memories first, probably trying to confirm my claims.

My goodness, it was the weirdest feeling ever, like my entire mind was alive with energy. And that energy was very clearly something _else._ Something truly _alien_.

This is so darned cool!

_'Glad you're enjoying this so much,' _came the Doctor's thought-voice again._ 'Most people get uncomfortable at the mention of telepathy.'_

_'If it were anybody but you, I probably would be. Well, this incarnation of you, anyways. Your last one was a bit iffy for a while, and your next one is kind of odd,' _I replied.

I swear, if you can ever imagine someone raising their eyebrow at you in your head, that's what he just did.

_'Ooh, you have some interesting theories about how this entire situation is possible! Information leaking between universes; brilliant! Though this can't be the source universe for my life, since my future will diverge from the one in the show as soon as I get back, but still! Brilliant! And ooh, you understand the big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff... stuff. Well, sort of. Barely grasping it, really. But still impressive, for a human.'_

He continued on a bit longer, and I got the impression that he was _bouncing _around my mind excitedly.

Then he headed back to the episode hall, but stopped at the closed door to "End of Time."

_'Hmm... You suspect another time loop in this episode.'_

_'Yeah. And another opportunity to save Donna, though you'll probably need information in Day of the Doctor to manage it. Maybe you can look in here after?'_

_'... All right.'_

And then, he went right past the door and into the room containing the events of Day of the Doctor.

His mental energy seemed to still for a while.

Then it exploded in what I can only describe as pure and utter shock before rushing out of my mind all at once.

The Doctor and I sprang apart, back in the real world.

I stumbled back, dizzy, while the Time Lord jumped back, startled and stunned.

"Holey blankets, what was THAT?!" I gasped out, holding my head and plopping my butt down onto the ground.

"Sorry," he mumbled absently while running his hand through his hair.

"It's ok," I moaned, still holding my head.

I don't blame him for his reaction to that episode; learning one's own planet's not actually gone can do that to a person.

But, oww...

The Doctor paced a bit before finally getting a hold of himself and coming to crouch in front of me.

He pulled out his sonic and scanned my head before saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry about that. The shock must have broken my shielding. But I have to go back in; I seemed to have accidentally damaged something in there."

"Ok," I said quietly before presenting my face again and closing my eyes. I braced myself.

Once more, cool fingers pressed against my temples, but this time, the energy that rushed into my mind hurt like sandpaper on a raw wound, making me wince.

_'Sorry. This should help,' _came the Doctor's thought-voice before a cooling, soothing sensation spread through my mind, feeling absolutely wonderful and making me relax.

_'Thanks,'_ I thought-murmured.

_'Now, I'm going to have to check you over for damage. Your doors should have held back the blast, so those memories should be fine, but anything else might be a bit jumbled up, so sorting through it all will probably involve me seeing most of what I'm sorting through. Is that okay?' _he asked.

Like it matters if this particular alien from _another universe_ knows basically everything about me. And even if it did, I'd rather not have chronic headaches caused by psychic damage. I agreed.

_'All right. If you're sure.'_

I gave a mental nod, and he proceeded to navigate my mind again.

Every so often, I felt a little soothing pulse go off somewhere, and other times, there was pressure and tugging and other interesting sensations that are hard to describe.

Eventually, he stopped.

'_I've done what I can, but you'll have to sleep off the rest. It should only take at most an hour, and the TARDIS is still a bit tetchy, so is it okay for me to take you to your flat... er, your apartment?'_

_'Yes.'_

_'All right. I'll be watching you just in case, alright?'_

_'Ok.'_

_'Then sleep.'_

At that, there was the slightest pressure on my mind, and my consciousness started just fading away.

And I slept.

X-X-X

I woke up in my own bed feeling better than I've ever felt in my entire life.

I blinked my eyes clear and looked around, in case this had all been a really nice dream.

"Oh, hello, you're awake! Brilliant! No pain?" came a familiar voice to my left.

I looked and saw the Doctor in a chair next to my bed, feet up on my desk and one of my books in his hand, looking at me semi-concernedly.

Yes! Not a dream!

I grinned.

"Nope!" I said happily, hopping out of bed, stretching, and giving myself a little twirl. "Never felt so good in my life! What did you do?"

The Doctor grinned, putting his feet down and saying, "I took the liberty of undoing some rather large knots you've managed to tie yourself in over the years. Don't worry; all your beliefs and memories are intact, just less confusing to look back on. Figured I might as well fix more than just the damage _I _caused. Sorry again, by the way."

"Well, whatever you did, it feels AWESOME! It's like I'll never feel really down again!"

"Well..."

"And I don't blame you all that much for the damage. Learning your planet is actually alive..."

The Time Lord looked away and rubbed the back of his head, saying, "Er, actually, I didn't get to that bit yet..."

"Eh?" Then it hit me. "Oh! Rose!"

"Yeah."

"Well, it wasn't _actually _Rose... but still, yeah, now I _really _can't blame you for reacting like that."

"Still..."

"Wait, does that mean you have to go back in?"

He put down the book.

"I'd rather not. I've fixed the damage done to the memories of that episode, so I got the gist of what happened, and that should be enough..."

"What about 'End of Time'?"

"I figured you could just tell me about it."

"Hey, I know!" I exclaimed, thinking of something. "I've got the whole thing either taped or on Netflix! We could watch it!"

The Doctor seemed to think about it for a bit, then replied, "Well, I can only spare another hour and a half at most before I have to start repairs on the TARDIS, so I guess I could watch 'End of Time', at least, if we skip the theme song."

"Can do. Though you're sure you don't want to see the important bit of 'Day of the Doctor', in my mind if you don't have enough time to do it the long way? I'd rather you be completely sure about all the events in there than you missing something and screwing up the loop. There aren't any more surprises in it, by the way, at least nowhere near as big as the Rose thing. Other than maybe the fact that you would have pushed that button all over again if your future self hadn't thought of another way."

The Doctor looked very unsure about this idea.

"You're sure I should go back in?" he said worriedly.

"It's only the one memory, and you'll definitely be careful, so yeah, one more time."

"Okay, but this is the last time," he warned, shaking his finger at me.

I grinned, both at his actions and the surreality of being in a situation where I'm actually _asking_ someone to read my mind.

"Ok."

And back in he went.

I could really feel his stepping really carefully into my mind, practically tiptoeing to the door of the episode.

Barely a tremor came out of that room, and he successfully managed to keep the entire thing stable the entire time.

Once he came out, he let go of my face and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well," he said, leaning back into the chair. "You were right. I _did _miss a few things. Might've managed without knowing them, but better safe than sorry, I suppose."

I got all smug.

"Well," he said, jumping up and bounding to the door, "come one then. Let's go watch my future!"

I just shook my head exasperatedly, rolled my eyes, and went with him to the living room area with the TV.

We both plopped onto the couch, with me fiddling with the necessary remotes.

As I was setting up the episode on Netflix, a couple of things occurred to me.

"Uh, Doctor?" I hedged. "When you were fixing me up, did you happen to see that Jenny is still alive?"

Judging from his reaction...

"WHAT!"

"Guess not. If you had waited another like 30 seconds, you would've seen her sort of half regenerate, and she wouldn't have had to steal someone else's ship for adventures. Honestly, like father, like daughter."

He gaped like a fish, and his fingers twitched, like he was just holding himself from tearing into my mind.

As much as I wanted him to feel better, I had had quite enough head-rummaging for today, so I just sighed, found "The Doctor's Daughter", went to the last minute or so of the episode, and played it, pointing to the screen to get him to focus on it.

The look on his face while watching that last minute was heartbreaking.

It looked like he wanted to dive through that screen and hug her to death.

Then the credits rolled, and I swear I saw tears in the Doctor's eyes.

I'm also fairly certain he stopped breathing, and I wouldn't have been surprised if at least one of his hearts had stopped.

Man, now I'M crying.*

I gave him a pat on the back, at which he jumped a bit, turned to me with those absolutely heartbreakingly emotional eyes, and pulled me into a big hug.

As I hugged him back (making a mental note to bounce like a madwoman about it later), he whispered, "Thank you," into my ear, with a voice so full of emotion that I just couldn't stop the tears from flowing, and we cried silently in each other's arms.

We separated after about a minute or so and wiped the tears from our eyes.

The Doctor composed himself as fast as usual, only leaning back into the couch and giving me a little smile, while I just sniffled a bit while finding "End of Time."

Which reminds me...

"Still want to watch this?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Fair warning. At the end, you regenerate. Want to skip that bit? It IS rather depressing."

He thought about it before nodding again.

"Ok," I agreed.

And I pressed 'Play.'

Words cannot describe the Doctor's reaction to the thing, just emotions. Sorrow. Utter shock. More utter shock. Horror. And bug-eyed shock followed by pride, sorrow, and hope at the point where we discover the source of the Drumbeats and the sacrifice of the Master.

And then Wilf knocked.

I waited until the on-screen Doctor sacrificed himself before pausing and turning to the real Doctor.

"Doctor."

Nothing.

"Doctor." A little louder.

Still nothing.

I waved a hand in front of his face. "Doctor?"

He jumped, spluttered a lot while looking back and forth between the screen and me, then make his trademark whiplash mood swing back to the usual stoicness.

"Yes?"

"After this, you visit all of your previous companions while holding back your regeneration before crawling back into the TARDIS, putting her in orbit, and pretty much exploding into your next incarnation. It only shows a few of the companions, though. Do you still want to see?"

He shook his head.

"Ok," I nodded before stopping the episode and shutting everything down.

"Too much?" I asked, noting the look in his eyes.

"Maybe a little. I see the loop, and blimey that was a whopper, but how could I fix Donna?"

"Tell Rassilon what's going to happen like five minutes after he goes back into the Time War and ask him if he can use that Gauntlet of his to fix her."

He scowled and said, "Somehow, I don't think that will turn out well. He'll probably say no just to spite me."

"Worth a shot, though, huh?"

"Maybe."

"MAYBE?! Did you not just see what Donna's going through because of you? You better do SOMETHING, even if it means nabbing her as soon as you get back and time-locking her until you CAN fix her, 'cause she really shouldn't live like that anymore."

At the look in my eyes, the Doctor put his hands up placatingly and said, "Ok, ok, I get it! It's just... Rassilon might just decide to kill her, and I'd rather the fix-it option stay open."

I deflated. "Oh. Yeah, good point."

Suddenly, the Doctor's head shot up and turned sharply in the direction I thought the TARDIS might be.

Sure enough, said Time Lord exclaimed, "The TARDIS! She's in trouble! Quick, do you have any aluminum and/or mercury?"

I racked my brains for a couple of seconds before lighting up.

"Oh, wait!" I exclaimed before running to the kitchen area and diving under the counters.

After some rummaging, I pulled out all the aluminum baking dishes and cupcake holders I had (he SO owes me for this) and plopped them onto the counter.

Then I ran into my bathroom and got the two old mercury thermometers I was going to use for an experiment and put them on the pile.

"That enough?" I smiled.

"Good," he replied, before grabbing the whole lot and running for the door.

I ran after him, catching whatever fell out of the pile and nabbing the thermometers while he opened the door.

We sprinted all the way back to the TARDIS (boy is he fast), with the Doctor already running around the console with the aluminum and the sonic going by the time I skidded to a stop inside.

I spared a quick second to marvel at the bigger on the inside thing before dropping my aluminum and holding out the thermometers for the Doctor, who raced by, nabbed them, raced to a hole in the console, broke them, and dumped the contents in.

I doubled over, panting.

"Gah!" he said after looking at the screen for a second. "Need more mercury!"

"Mercury's been banned from just about everything nowadays, Doctor!" I exclaimed, still panting.

Then I thought of something.

"Wait," I breathed. "I think they still use it in fluorescent bulbs! I might be able to get some from the hardware store!"

"I'll make it faster. Just give me your credit card and hold down these buttons. Bang that if that screen flashes red."

And off he went as soon as I did what he asked.

He popped his head right back in a split second later, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Uh, where exactly IS the hardware store?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

I sighed and told him.

"Right! Allons-y! Oh, not you," he practically chirped before taking off again.

It occurred to me that he might need my PIN, but then I remembered that even if he hadn't come across it in my mind, he could just sneakily sonic the machine into accepting anything he put in.

...

Oh.

Wow.

I. Am. In. The. TARDIS!

In the actual, real, living, actual, real TARDIS!

And met the DOCTOR!

The real, living, breathing, two-hearted, telepathic, Time Lord DOCTOR!

And I'm HELPING him!

With the TARDIS!

Eeeee! THIS IS SO FREAKING AWESOME!

The TARDIS gave a weak happy hum.

I gave her a pat with my elbow, my hands being otherwise occupied with buttons, and said, "Hey, old girl. Nice to meet you. Don't worry, your thief will take good care of you."

I got a slightly stronger happy hum at calling him her thief.

"Wait, you know possible futures, right?"

An affirmative hum.

"Yeah, the one where he regenerates and causes YOU to regenerate from the damage? I think that might have to happen."

A grudgingly accepting hum.

"On the bright side, you'll feel better than ever afterwards."

A hum of pride.

"And be nice to the impossible girl you'll eventually meet. She _is _responsible for your thief picking you instead of the TARDIS next to you with the fancy navigational systems."

That got a slightly surprised hum out of her, followed by another grudgingly accepting hum.

I smiled.

I am talking to the TARDIS.

How much cooler can things get?

The doors suddenly burst open, and a full-armed Doctor came tumbling in, kicking the doors shut as he went.

Fluorescent bulbs went rolling everywhere.

"Doctor!" I exclaimed. "That was fast!"

"Possible time differential!" he replied. "Let go of those buttons and help me with these!"

So I did.

He cracked each bulb in half (they were the long kind) and had me hold the halves of each one while he sonicked them.

Then he had me help in pouring the liquid inside into the hole he put my thermometer mercury in before.

He then proceeded to sonic the aluminum plates until they were all mushy and actually threw them into the heart of the TARDIS.

Finally, he pushed a couple of buttons and waited.

The remains of the bulbs seemed to evaporate, and a powerful set of vibrations and satisfied humming reverberated around the ship.

"Haha!" he yelled triumphantly. "Recycle and repair functions at full capacity!"

He started running around pushing buttons.

"Hold it!" I yelled.

He stopped and looked at me questioningly.

"We're not leaving, are we?" I asked warily.

"Yeah," he said, bewildered. "Why?"

I raised an eyebrow at him and said, "No offense, but your universe is DANGEROUS! Not to mention that travelling with you tends to involve a lot of running, and I'm just not made for that much running. If you're worried about your future, just destroy or re-engineer the Daleks the first chance you get, go to the Dalek asylum, find the girl who managed to hack the Dalek's tech, find her name out and what happened to her, protect your companions from the nanobots, and blow the place to kingdom come. Everything else will sort itself out one way or another."

He seemed to process that for half a minute before saying, "I'll keep that in mind. But... The Dalek asylum is real?"

"Yeah, apparently Daleks find beauty in hatred," I replied.

The Doctor looked absolutely disgusted, just like his next incarnation did on the show.

"You sure you don't want to come?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes. I have a life here, and I'd rather leave the alien fighting to you and your companions," I replied.

He looked a bit depressed at that, which reminded me of Davros' words.

"By the way, you don't turn your companions into warriors. You teach them to choose mercy first and violence second. Some of them just tend to be more warrior-like to begin with. Had they found out about aliens another way, and they would have, they might not have been so merciful."

"But Martha..." he started.

"Was prepared to do exactly what you did to protect the universe, except _she _gave the Daleks warning," I interrupted.

He looked down at his feet then.

"Oh, come on, Doctor! You've got to get your priorities straight! There's no point in saving one planet only for it to be destroyed anyways when the entire UNIVERSE collapses!" I exclaimed exasperatedly.

The look on his face told me that he was being stubborn about keeping his views.

"Stop being so stubborn for once and listen to people when they tell you things! You said it yourself that humans have something that Time Lords don't that lets us see things you don't! It's why the DoctorDonna was so brilliant!"

I could see the Doctor was beginning to break.

"Come on, you gotta admit I have a point."

He broke.

"Fine," he mumbled reluctantly. "You do have a point. You're probably right, again."

I got all smug again.

"So!" he exclaimed, whiplashing again to happy and bouncy mode. "Off you go, then! Nice meeting you! Thanks for your help!"

He then waved me off before stopping me, running back to the console, and diving underneath it.

When he popped back out, he came bouncing over to me and handed me something.

I looked down to see a dirty-looking blob of silvery stuff.

"Waste silver from the TARDIS' repair cycle. Say you found it sticking out of the ground somewhere. That should be enough to pay for the bulbs and aluminum plates."

I gawped at it before looking up at the Doctor and breathing, "Thanks!"

He grinned and gave me a hug.

I squeed internally and hugged him back, letting myself have a quick listen to his heartsbeat in the process.

When he let go, I did, too, before turning and walking out the door.

As I turned to wave goodbye, a thought crossed my mind.

"Doctor?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"Did you ever actually SEE Susan die? Permanently?"

He frowned, but answered, "No. She was supposed to have been blown to bits when the Daleks attacked the ship carrying her to the War."

I grinned and asked, "I don't suppose you could pop in and rescue her, hmm?"

He shook his head and said, "No. Those events are time-locked. I can't go there without someone or something letting me."

"But her Gallifreyan name means 'rose,' doesn't it?"

He nodded.

"Maybe the Bad Wolf will let you in, then, like she did as the Moment."

A hopeful look passed his face as he said, "Maybe..."

I grinned bigger.

"Worth a shot, eh?"

Life sprang to his eyes like nothing I've ever seen before.

"It is indeed. Oh, you're brilliant, you are, Amber Williams. Thank you!"

"No problem."

"I'll visit if I can after Gallifrey returns."

"You do that."

"Bye!" He waved with his typical finger wiggling.

"Bye," I waved back, mimicking him.

He then closed the door with a giant grin on his face, and the TARDIS began to dematerialize.

I let the wind it caused to blow my hair around as I watched it fade in and out until it was completely gone before whispering into the air, "Good luck," and walking away.

After a few steps, I jumped up and whooped.

Eee! This was the best day of my entire LIFE! I have got to tell someone!

I know! I'll tell my best friend, also a Whovian, but play it off as a dream.

Then I'm going to see about getting this sliver appraised.

Ahh! This is a start to a beautiful life.

I jumped and whooped all the way home.

* * *

A/N: I'm ending this here. Bits of this story will likely be expanded on in my next story, where the situation in here is reversed.

And the borrowed idea was the idea about information from one universe not affecting another universe's timeline.

*I was actually crying at this point... No seriously, just writing that scene had me sniffling and tearing with those two.


End file.
